Editorial July 25, 1994 Issue

Are you an "X'er"?

Russ Gerber

If the label "Generation X" signified only a demographic, it might not be so bad. Yet, as the previous editorial in this week's Sentinel points out, attached to that label is a pretty sad character profile as well. An "X'er" is said to be part of an empty, disappointed generation. People with no clear future. A generation that's losing ground.

While many say that such generalizations are simply part of a media-manufactured myth, not everyone tends to treat them that way. The result can be that generational stereotypes stick; that we come to expect someone within a particular age bracket—even ourselves, perhaps—as quite naturally thinking and behaving one way or another, right in line with what we've been taught is characteristic of that group. And taught is an appropriate word, even though at first we may not think of it as a kind of education that's taking place.

The thing is, when we haven't learned for ourselves what's true about someone, we're much more likely to accept, as fact, whatever we're repeatedly told about him or her. Even when it comes to knowing ourselves, if we're unsure about our own talents or skills, if we haven't had much experience in the workplace or in establishing relationships with others, the tendency may be to look to popular stereotypes for some kind of direction or reassurance. Problems arise, of course, when what's considered true about twentysomethings, thirtysomethings, or hundredsomethings, just isn't true. And actually, any label based on a mortal, material concept of man needs to be reconsidered from a higher standpoint.

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